A graduate of Yale, UVA, Princeton, Goldman Sachs 10KSB + Techstars, Carol created the Moments Method® and built Story2 to empower people to share bold, authentic stories in safe, intersectional communities. Carol innovates at the intersection of education, technology + community. Want to stay up to date on the latest tips and resources? Follow us on Instagram!Ĭarol Barash, PhD, is founder + CEO of Story2, a community of over a quarter-million storytellers across 4 continents. Go to College Admission Essays Made Easy.įor more info about college admission and scholarship essays and interviews, sign up for self-paced courses and our award-winning StoryBuilder writing platform FREE. Don't let yourself sound like everyone else. Never over-edit your essay.Īfter showing their essay to everyone, students edit it again and again to make each reader happy - and before you know it, their story has been ground down and their voice has vanished. Each person has a different idea about what you “should” write, and before you know it, you’ve lost the heart of the essay. Students often show their essays to teachers, counselors, parents, and friends. Never show your essay to too many people. No stories are off limits, but tell them in a way that draws people into your experience, not a way that shocks or scares them away. Never give TMI.īut be careful: your essay is the first thing colleges know about you.
Colleges admit real people, not perfect people. Never hold back.Ĭollege essays should reveal the real you, the complicated you, the person who makes mistakes, not the goody-two-shoes you think you are supposed to be. Write about what you did the next day instead. The worst example: all the big, world-changing things you think about during yoga class.
The worst essays are the ones where students are all caught in their own thoughts. It’s great to be engaged in activist work, but show yourself doing the work rather than using your essay as a platform to make your case. Don’t be right or make someone else wrong. Never pontificate.ĭo not ever tell other people what they should think. If you have shown your learning, you don’t need to tell them what you learned. “That was the day I learned how important it is to be kind to everyone.” You just stabbed me in the heart with stupor. Never end with a “happily ever after” conclusion. Learn from successful student essays with notes about how they worked and why! 4. Set the scene, or jump right into dialogue, so they see it’s not just you in the story. “This is an essay about my commitment to the environment.” Boring! You have one chance to get the reader’s attention, so draw them in with action right from the beginning. Instead, you should explore specific moments that reveal your character in action. Students often come to our courses with a “topic” they think they should write about, as if they are writing an analytical essay in English class. Who will you be as a classmate? As a roommate? As the leader of a campus activity? 2. Essays provide another dimension to your application. Your school work and out-of-school work already show up in your transcript, lists of awards, and activities. Never rehash your academic and extracurricular accomplishments. Keep reading to learn even more about the things that you should not write about in your college admissions essay. Never show your essay to too many people.
Never end with a “happily ever after” conclusion.
Never rehash your academic and extracurricular accomplishments.Many essays included things that you should not do in your college admissions essay including: Those successful essays also avoided a number of common pitfalls. They were authentic, well-crafted and told me an interesting story. When I read college application essays as a faculty advisor to the admissions committee at Douglass College, Rutgers, the great essays were few and far between, but I remember them to this day. What should you not write in a college essay?